AES (NYSE:AES) Earns “Buy” Rating from Argus

Argus restated their buy rating on shares of AES (NYSE:AES) in a research note published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $25.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AES has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $21.57.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $17.93 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. The company has a fifty day moving average of $16.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.74 billion, a PE ratio of 54.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.07. AES has a fifty-two week low of $11.43 and a fifty-two week high of $25.74.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.06. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that AES will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.85%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 209.10%.

Institutional Trading of AES

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 17.6% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 3,513 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 527 shares in the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in AES by 0.7% during the third quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 96,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,470,000 after purchasing an additional 665 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its holdings in AES by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 4,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 668 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its holdings in AES by 0.3% during the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 294,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,109,000 after purchasing an additional 754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Solutions LLC raised its holdings in AES by 0.5% during the third quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 168,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,554,000 after purchasing an additional 793 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Company Profile

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market.